Most of World’s Largest Marine Protected Areas Have Inadequate Protections

"In a setback to efforts to conserve 30 percent of the ocean by 2030, a third of the world’s largest MPAs allow destructive practices like mining and commercial fishing, while others are “paper parks” with no formal conservation measures."

"Many existing marine protected areas might be something like screen doors on a submarine, at least as far as their impact on ocean conservation.

A new study finds that only a third of the world’s largest marine protected areas (MPAs) currently implement meaningful conservation measures.

Increasingly, marine conservation is the art of separating humans from parts of the ocean. More often than not, marine protected areas, swaths of the sea that are set aside and managed to preserve sea life and its habitats, are the flagship models for government efforts to accomplish this.

However, a recent analysis published in Conservation Letters revealed alarming inadequacies in the effectiveness of the world’s largest MPAs. The study, conducted by an international group of researchers spearheaded by the Marine Conservation Institute in Seattle, Washington, focused on the largest 100 MPAs in the world, which together encompass over 7 percent of the world’s ocean area."

Bing Lin reports for Inside Climate News June 17, 2024.

Source: Inside Climate News, 06/18/2024